Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a lithography system and a method of manufacturing articles.
Description of the Related Art
There is a conventional drawing apparatus that includes a plurality of electronic optical systems (hereinafter, simply referred to as “optical systems”) capable of emitting a plurality of electron beams to draw a pattern on a substrate. For example, in a case where the optical systems are arrayed in a row on a horizontal surface, each optical system can draw a pattern in each stripe-shaped region having a long side extending in a direction perpendicular to the array direction. The plurality of optical systems can simultaneously draw patterns in different shot regions.
In this case, it is desired that there is an integer ratio relationship between a distance between optical axes of neighboring optical systems in the array direction and a pitch of the shot region in the same direction. Processing for converting graphic design data relating to a drawing pattern, such as a circuit pattern, into pattern data can be commonalized with processing for transferring the converted pattern data to each optical system.
However, if the size of the shot region is variable, the above-mentioned relationship may become a non-integer ratio and commonalizing the pattern data will become difficult. Therefore, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-172428, it is conventionally known that the drawing apparatus can be configured to include a plurality of optical systems arrayed on a support member rotatable around a rotational axis extending in a vertical direction. The above-mentioned conventional drawing apparatus can adjust the distance between optical axes of respective optical systems by selecting an appropriate rotational angle of the support member. However, even in the drawing apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-172428, the positions of the plurality of optical systems may change with time elapsed and it will be necessary to perform the above-mentioned processing for converting the graphic design data into pattern data again.